Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/242

216 probably built by instalments, the lines being gradually extended till they embraced the whole of the rocky platform. It was constructed by Henry Schlegelholt, a German knight, who found in the ruins of the Mausoleum an ample supply of building materials. The masonry throughout is in admirable preservation. Since the day when the castle was handed over to the Mussulman conqueror it has undergone very few changes. The long brass gima of the knights still arm the batteries, and their powder lies caked up in the magazines. The Turks change nothing in their fortresses. There is in this castle a magnificent cistern cut in the rock, full of water. A few years ago a soldier fell into it and was drowned. The Turks, instead of troubling themselves to fish the body out, ceased to use the water of- the cistern, regarding it as polluted for ever. In the tower at the south-east corner is a rooni which was probably the refectory of the knights. Here, sitting in the wide bays of the windows, they beguiled the weariness of garrison life by carving their names and escutcheons on the walls. Many hundred valiant soldiers of the Cross, unmentioned in the glorious annals of the Order, have thus been preserved from utter oblivion, for the inscriptions are as fresh as if cut yesterday. This tower was probably erected by Englishmen, as the arms of Edward IV., and of the different branches of the Plantagenet family, together with many other English coats, are sculptured in a row over the door. Scattered about the castle are the arms of its successive captains, ranging from 1437 to 1522, when the garrison surrendered to the Turks. Among these is the name of a well-known English knight, Sir Thomas Sheffield, with the date 1514. The arms of another Englishman, John Kendal, who was Turcopolier 1477—1500, may be seen under the royal arms on the tower at the south-east angle. here, as at Rhodes, the stern monotony of military masonry is constantly relieved by shields and inscriptions sculptured on white marble and let into the walls. Wherever architectural decoration occurs it is of the same flamboyant character as at Rhodes. In the chapel may still be seen a beautifully carved wood screen, now adapted to Mussulman worship.”

In addition to the inscription already quoted, there was also Newton’s